He is, after all, the most polarizing golf club pro on the planet, and he continues to make competitive waves on PGA Tour Champions. Block is once again contending for his first senior title this week in the Jefferson Lehigh Valley Classic, taking the clubhouse lead on Saturday by shooting 63. But he doesn’t need a victory to celebrate a big milestone, and that part has gone under the radar.

As reported by the Daily Breeze in Orange County, Block will officially become a member of the over-50 circuit after Lehigh because he'll have made seven starts this season and has earnings that put him well into the top 72 on tour. Block has three top-10s since turning 50 in June and had earned $326,486. That would have put him at No. 50 in the Charles Schwab Cup standings as a member, and he figures to climb farther up with another strong result in Allentown, Pa. So, Block is in the three-event playoffs that begin Oct. 23 at the Stifel Charity Classic in St. Louis—which happens to be his hometown. Just one more crazy Blockie twist.

“I really didn’t think it was a possibility with such a short season left [after turning 50] that I could make the playoffs,” Block told Southland Golf, “but that was my goal—and now it’s going to happen. It’s unbelievable.”

The Piper opened to the public on Friday at the Legends Golf Resort, where three 18-hole courses—the Heathland, the Parkland and the Moorland—already sit (guests also have access to Oyster Bay and Heritage Club). Designed by Ken Baker and sitting on 12 acres behind the clubhouse, The Piper features holes from 54 yards up to 120—providing a fun option for all ages and abilities. The course will be $10 for juniors and $25 for other guests for the rest of 2026. Check out our list of the 25 best courses you can play in Myrtle Beach here.

That’s what makes this out-of-this-world par from Nicolo Galletti so impressive. Playing the Compliance Solutions Championship, the 31-year-old was 60th in points, sitting right on the bubble to advance to next week’s KFT Championship. Mid-way through the second round at The Patriot Golf Club in Oklahoma, he was hovering around the projected cut when he hit his tee ball on the par-5 first hole right into the woods. He played a provisional, which went left into a penalty area. Somehow, though, he managed to find his first ball, punched out to 192 yards and eventually got up and down from 35 feet to save par.

Galletti went on to make the cut, but he still has some work to do over the weekend. At T-47 entering the third round, he is projected to drop to 64th in KFT points. But at least he’s got his fate in his hands.

Needing to rally to make the cut at the Black Desert Resort, the 21-year-old rookie birdied the 14th and 16th holes but still had to make at least a 4 on the 600-yard, par-5 finisher. And it didn’t look good when Koivun’s tee shot found a fairway bunker. “Didn't have the greatest lie," he recounted. "But I pulled 3-wood and I was, like, ‘I'm going to go for broke here.’ Came out nicely.”

Boy, did it. Koivun hammered that wood from the sand 260 yards and ended up just 43 yards from the flag. From there, clipped a low chip to five feet and made the birdie putt to shoot four-under 67 and finish on the cut number at six under. It's worth watching:

After earning 2½ points in Team USA's win last week, including a singles victory over Si Woo Kim, Koivun admitted on Friday to being “mentally exhausted” and “struggling with some emotions.” And for those reasons, he said, “I’m really proud of the way I fought back on those last nine holes.”

So he was to be forgiven on Friday when he couldn’t remember the last time he’d played in the final group on a weekend. The subject came up because Streelman got into the final three-ball on Saturday for the third round of the Bank of Utah Championship. Guys have been shooting lights out amid the red rocks and black lava fields, and the 47-year-old Streelman went 63-64 to be two shots behind leader Austin Smotherman. Streelman wasn’t originally in the field but got in on his number when Lanto Griffin pulled out. “Very thankful and fortunate to be here. Also, I feel like I have nothing to lose, really,” Streelman said.

Streelman is the definition of a journeyman, having played 19 consecutive seasons on the tour, with 11 more appearances left to reach 500. He could only make 10 starts in 2025 after tearing the meniscus in his knee. “My family's coming in this weekend. I just feel I'm going to try and attack and have fun,” said Streelman, who is 151st in the FedEx Cup and could make a huge jump toward the top 100 with a strong finish.

Koepka's been on staff with Nike and Srixon, as well as having a successful stint as an equipment free agent. And yet, even through all the changes, two clubs have managed to fend off the competition: Nike's Vapor Fly Pro 3-iron and TaylorMade's M2 3-wood.

While the former remained in the bag at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Koepka made a surprise move and replaced the M2 3-wood with a TaylorMade R7 Quad mini driver.

Whether this is a one-week tweak for links golf or the start of a longer move away from the M2 remains to be seen. Koepka, who's three shots back of the lead heading into the weekend, hasn't spoken about the club change. But based on photos I captured during the PGA Championship, the 3-wood was showing serious signs of wear.

In other words, it may have simply been time to replace it. As for the mini driver, the club has become a bag staple for several high-profile names in recent years, including Tommy Fleetwood, Adam Scott and Rickie Fowler, because it offers versatility off the tee and from the turf.

Despite a breakout season for Alex Fitzpatrick and brother Matt enjoying what he called "the best form of my life" leading up to the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, it was their mom who hit the shot of the tournament on Friday. Playing alongside her sons in the pro-am, the Fitzpatrick matriach hit this ludicrous fairway metal to three feet, well inside of her PGA Tour-pro sons' respective approaches.

Not only was this an incredible shot and a fantastic family moment, but it was also a reminder for all us sons out there that no matter where life takes us, mom always knows best.

A five-under 65 on Friday has Kim atop the individual standings at the Asian Games with one round to go, and South Korea is in first in the team component as well. A gold medal in either competition allows the 24-year-old Kim to bypass his mandatory military commitment, which would sideline him for at least two years of his professional career. Kim is playing just days after participating in the Presidents Cup, where he turned in one of the best performances of his career. Also seeking exemption is tour player S.H. Kim, who at 10 shots behind Tom Kim will need to secure his status through the team event. At 28 years old, this is S.H.’s last shot to get out of the commitment. “I think about it. It's so tough," S.H. Kim said of postponing his career. "I am 100 percent nervous, for sure. It's a lot of pressure. I could stay on the PGA Tour [with a gold]. That's my goal."

during the opening round of the Bank of Utah Championship. Forty minutes later he was tied for the lead. The 33-year-old Englishman had made three birdies in 15 holes at Black Desert Resort then closed with birdie, birdie, albatross, holing his second shot on the par-5 ninth hole (his last) with a 6-iron from 238 yards after a 350-yard drive. Yes, he played the last three holes in five under par, jumped to eight-under 63 total and was tied for lead with four others. It was the fifth albatross of the year on the PGA Tour. "We could see it," Smith said. "It took a nice favorable bounce on the green and it sort of shot it towards the hole, but then it goes over a bit of a crest and we couldn't see it, and then everyone was cheering, putting their arms up, so then we knew. Yeah, pretty special."

they haven’t always been the most affordable option for those who don’t have their names on their bags. Revelyst’s Foresight Sports, makers of the GC Quad which, with rival Trackman, is the most common launch monitor used on tour, now is offering its least expensive launch monitor, the fully updated GC2, which was first introduced in 2010. Retailing for only slightly more than a premium set of irons, the GC2 incorporates the high-speed camera technology, as well as the ball-flight analytics of the top-of-the-line GC Quad and GC Quadmax machines. The new GC2’s dual camera system provides data on 13 trajectory categories, including carry and total distance, ball speed, launch angle, back and side spin, peak height and descent angle. Fifteen years ago that kind of launch monitor technology cost more like $10,000. Now, with the new GC2, it’s more than 80 percent cheaper. The fully portable unit works in indoor, on-course and range environments, and the Foresight-designed ultra-high speed photometric cameras capture images at 6,000 frames per second. It’s also compatible with Foresight’s all-in-one golf simulator system known as Sim In A Box. Let us know if you’ve heard of anything else in the golf equipment world that’s now one-fifth of what it cost 16 years ago. Available at retail Oct. 12 ($1,699).

As the old saying goes, there are no pictures on the scorecard. Unfortunately, for TV personality Piers Morgan, there was a camera on the Road Hole during the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship on Thursday, and it captured his absolute wormburner that nearly some civilians walking near the Old Course Hotel. 

Fortunately, though, Morgan's story has a very happy ending - his ball actually found the middle of the fairway! 

Well said, Mark. Though we'd probably qualify it as the worst televised drive to ever find the fairway at the Road Hole. Because there is zero doubt in our mind that other choppers have hit the exact same shot at the Old Course over the years. And possibly worse. 

end up as the last two standing in the match-play championship, but that happened Thursday at Portland Golf Club in Oregon. Top-seed Xiaolong (Sherry) Zhong, of China, beat Amandine Vincent, of France, 1 up, to become the first player from China to win the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur and the fourth overall from her country to win a USGA championship. Both age 50, Zhong held a 3-up lead after 10, but Vincent won Nos. 11, 15 and 16 to tie the match. Zhong won 17 and held on to tie 18 and win the match.

Zhong won both the San Franciso City Senior Women’s Championship and the Northern California Senior Women’s Am this summer and finished 17th at the U.S. Senior Women’s Open. Vincent, who played college golf at UCLA and Mississippi State in the late 1990s, was playing in her first senior event in the U.S. and won four times in France this summer.

Finau debuted the putter grip at the Biltmore Championship Asheville and is back with it at the Bank of Utah Championship. It started when Caliber Golf CEO Tim Wright spotted Finau at the Truist Championship putting with a unique grip setup on a broomstick-length putter. Finau eventually went looking for different options and landed on Caliber, whose carbon-fiber grip system gets fitted to a putter head a player already trusts. His is a Ping Scottsdale Tec Ally Blue Onset mallet.

The grip is perfectly flat, so Finau's hands, grip and putter face all point the same direction. "I just think it's easier to aim," Finau said earlier in the week in Utah.

Short putts are the main reason. According to Finau, he's always been good from 20 to 25-plus feet, but not as good closer in, where "you don't have time to manipulate the face."

The numbers explain the grip tinkering he's been doing recently, in an attempt to solve the problem. Finau ranks 122nd in strokes gained: putting, losing more than a shot per tournament on the greens. Hockey stick or not, he's betting on better aim to get things moving in the right direction.

There are two ways for a South Korean golfer to get an exemption from the military service that is otherwise mandatory for male citizens between ages 18 and 35. You can win an Olympic medal, or you can take gold in the individual or team event at the Asian Games. This week in Japan, Tom Kim is attempting the latter, and after two rounds at the Kasugai Country Club East Course, he's exactly where he stood at the end of Round 1: Two shots off the lead, now held by both Wenyi Ding and Wei-hsuan Wang. Kim shot 66 in the second round, and as a team the Koreans are in solo third at a collective 14 under, trailing the leaders Japan by just two shots. As Tod Leonard covered here at Digest, the stakes are high—compulsory military service takes between 18 and 21 months, time for practicing golf is scarce, and players like Sangmoon Bae were never quite the same after serving. At 24, Kim could have another shot at the 2028 Olympics or the 2023 Asian Games, but even that is uncertain, as Bae had to begin his service at age 29. Two rounds remain at this year's Asian Games.